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Instant Pot Pork Chops with Creamy Garlic Sauce

Thick bone-in pork chops cooked in an Instant Pot to tender and juicy perfection with a rich and creamy garlic sauce. Really? Does it get any better than that?

We start with some good bone-in pork loin chops or bone-in ribeye chops that are about 1″ thick. We want to go for the thicker pork chops because they cook better in pressure cooker environment. Look for pork chops that have good marbling too. The fat helps keep the chops moist and tender. You’ll also get better results if the pork chops spend a few minutes out of the refrigerator before starting to cook them.

We’ll use a simple rub of salt, course ground black pepper, garlic powder, oregano and flour. Mix it all together and dredge the pork chops through it. Get all the sides well coated. The we set the Instant Pot to saute mode and melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Once it says hot, we carefully add the pork chops and let them brown on each side for about 2 minutes. This will create a nice golden brown exterior.

After each side is sauteed, we remove the chops and add the smashed garlic to the pot. Why smashed garlic? For a couple of reasons. For one, quite frankly it’s easier than chopping up the 6 cloves of garlic. Also, smashing the fresh cloves of garlic extracts the natural oils and gives us a robust flavor. Once the smashed garlic has been added to the pot, stir it around for about a minute in the butter and browned bits on the bottom of the pot. We don’t want to go longer than 1 minute because garlic can start to burn quickly. Then we press cancel, add the broth and deglaze the bottom of the bot. This is very important. Deglazing is using a wooden spoon to scrape all the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. If we leave them stuck to the pot we’ll likely get a burn notice, which we certainly don’t want. After deglazing, we add 3-4 stems of fresh thyme to liquid, then nestle the pork chops into the liquid. After a 12 minute pressure cook and an 8 minute release, we remove the pork chops and make our creamy garlic sauce.

Creamy Garlic Sauce

The creamy garlic sauce is a simple combination of broth, heavy cream, lemon juice, thyme, black pepper and flour. The sauce is made by adding all the sauce ingredients to the liquid remaining in the pot, except the flour. Use a whisk and whisk it all in well. Then, use a ladle and ladle out about 1/4 of the liquid into a bowl with the flour and whisk away! This will create a thick slurry, which we then pour back into the pot and continue to whisk until its all incorporated. Hit the saute button once again and let the sauce thicken for a few minutes.

Instructions

To prepare the pork, combine the ½ tsp. of salt, black pepper, garlic powder, dried oregano and 2 teaspoons of flour in a shallow dish. Dredge the pork chops in the mixture on all sides.

Turn the instant pot to the “Saute” function and add the butter to the pot. Once the butter is melted and just beginning to brown, add the pork chops to the pot in a single layer (not overlapping). Brown the pork chops on each side for 1-2 minutes, or until they have a nice browned exterior. Remove the pork chops and add the smashed garlic and give them a stir in the browned bits at the bottom of the pot.

Add the water or broth and scrape up any leftover browned bits at the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Nestle the pork chops back into the liquid along with half of the thyme stems. Press the “Cancel” button on the Instant Pot and place the lid on the Instant Pot with the vent set to the “sealing” position.

Select the “Pressure Cook” (Manual) option on your Instant Pot and set the timer to 12 minutes at high pressure. Once the timer is up, allow the pressure to naturally release for 8 minutes, then flip the vent to the quick release to finish releasing any steam.

Carefully remove the pork chops from the pan along with the thyme stems. Set the pot to the “Saute” function again and use tongs or a fork to break up the softened bits of garlic. Add the remaining thyme stems. Once the liquid begins to bubble, add in the cream and lemon juice and give everything a stir. Ladle out about ¼ of the liquid and pour into a small bowl. Whisk it together with the flour to create a slurry. Pour the slurry back into the pot and whisk until the sauce begins to thicken. Set the pot to “cancel” once the sauce thickens to your liking. Note that it will keep thickening after you remove it from the heat. If it thickens too much, you can whisk in a little additional water.

Remove any remaining stems from the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the pork chops and serve with your favorite side dish.

Followed the recipe exactly on the quantities and while the pork chops were OK, I found the overall flavor to be bland and lacking something. Perhaps the recipe needs onion, or maybe some parmesan cheese? I was so excited to try this as I love garlic and it looks very good, but I would not make this again.